Thus he came at length to stand on the verge of the Indian Ocean; " gazing upon it," a writer has said, " with as much delight as Balboa, when he crossed the Isthmus of Darien from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
In 1508 Alonso de Ojeda obtained the government of the coast of South America from Cabo de la Vela to the Gulf of Darien; Ojeda landed at Cartagena in 1510, and sustained a defeat from the natives, in which his lieutenant, Juan de la Cosa, was killed.
After another reverse on the east side of the Gulf of Darien Ojeda returned to Hispaniola and died there.
The Spaniards in the Gulf of Darien were left by Ojeda under the command of Francisco Pizarro, the future conqueror of Peru.
One of the crew of Enciso's ship, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the future discoverer of the Pacific Ocean, induced his commander to form a settlement on the other side of the Gulf of Darien.